Top 5 BitTorrent Clients for Windows

A roundup of the five best BitTorrent clients available for downloading your favorite TV shows, movies, music, and more.

Long ago BitTorrent surpassed direct connect-style downloading to become the preferred method of file-sharing because of its speed and ability to share large files, especially video. As such, over the years the popularity of certain BitTorrent clients has ebbed and flowed depending on user tastes (Azureus anyone).

So for those unfamiliar with which to use, or for those regular users perhaps looking to see how your favorite BitTorrent client stacks up the rest I’ve compiled a list of the top 5 BitTorrent clients to see which is the right one for you.

Ratings and Comments:¬†Leverages the collective wisdom of the community to ensure the quality and security of downloaded torrents.

Drag-and-Drop Sending:¬†Easily send massive personal files ‚Ä” e.g. home movies, cell phone videos and hi-res photos. Select a file on your computer, drag it into the ¬ĶTorrent “Drop files to send” box and a Web link is yours to share.

Portable Mode:¬†Run your ¬ĶTorrent client directly from a USB key and take it with you anywhere.

uTorrent also sports the App Studio. Launched last November, the App Studio enables one-click downloads of content and features right inside uTorrent. Offers downloads of music, movies, and books as well as social media apps like TorrentTweet or antivirus apps like BitDefender‚Äôs VirusGuard.

Moreover, it’s built for speed and you can leave it running in the background without having to worry about it slowing down your other tasks.

If you’re looking for a guide on how to set up and use uTorrent we have one HERE.

Formerly Azureus, Vuze was the first BitTorrent client to offer a wide variety of features and plugins. The downside is the relatively high memory usage, but for those where this isn’t an issue Vuze offers a far more compelling BitTorrent experience.

Features:

Vuze Meta Search offers aggregates results from a variety of top sites.

Automatically adapts to optimize for your network.

Watch in Full Screen HD (1080p).

Can play virtually any type of video file – AVI, XVID, Quicktime, and more.

Offline playback (on planes, trains, automobiles)

Drag-and-drop content to play back on the device of your choice: iPhone, iPod, iPad, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PSP, and TiVo.

Vuze Remote: control your Vuze client from any computer or smartphone with a web browser.

RSS Feed support

Moreover, Vuze is the BitTorrent client to choose if you wan’t a more robust downloading experience.

The official BitTorrent client has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years, offerring new features and options that set it apart from the rest. It’s all part of “Project Chrysalis,” its effort to achieve the “next generation” of the BitTorrent Mainline client.

Features:

RSS feed support.

Download and upload scheduling.

Transfer caps to avoid ISP overusage fees.

Add Torrent from URL.

Intelligent: BitTorrent auto-adjusts bandwidth usage based upon your network and the Internet.

Plug-n-Play.

Advanced: BitTorrent leverages ¬ĶTP, the latest BitTorrent protocol. BitTorrent maximizes the use of network bandwidth while reducing congestion & it doesn’t interfere with your other surfing.

Low memory footprint.

The BitTorrent Mainline client also supports the same App Studio I mentioned about uTorrent. The App Studio lets you add new features, skin your client and more.

It’s¬†popularity¬†has slowly waned over the years, but it’s still enjoys a loyal following. It doesn’t feature the fancy bells and whistles of the others like uTorrent and Vuze, but it’s fast, reliable, and easy-to-use.

Features:

Upload/download speed throttling.

Option of Disabling and Setting Priority of Files in any torrent.

Detailed information about connections to other peers.

UPnP¬†Port Forwarding (Universal Plug and Play).

IPv6¬†support (OS¬†support required).

PE/MSE support.

Quick resume.

The only real downside to BitTornado is that it’s a little bit too “lightweight” in my opinion. I love programs that use minimal resources, but memory has become cheap enough these days that unless your running an old tower with 512k there’s no reason to choose BitTornado.

BitComet also still enjoys a¬†loyal¬†following, and offers search¬†features¬†far different than the others. BitComet lets you browse some 14 tracker sites for content,¬†including¬†Demonoid and BTJunkie with minimal configuration required.

Features:

HTTP/FTP Download.

Preview while Downloading:¬†Preview of avi, rmvb, wmv and other video files¬†is available during downloading process.

Jared Moya
I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus